"Minh Quý’s slow-cinema sensibilities are nothing short of spellbinding, the trance of rumination within reason enough to seek it out."—Luke Hicks, The Film Stage
"Truong Minh Quy’s new queer romance-cum-sociohistorical lament mines beauty from both collective desolation and individual endurance."—Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine
"Offers a richly personal blend of the authentic and the abstract."—John Berra, Screen International
Nam and Viet love each other. Both are miners, working 1000 meters below ground where danger awaits and darkness prevails. Coal earns them a living, while polluting the land and the sea. Black sea. Black coal. Burnt coal. Wet coal. Dusty coal. When Nam decides to leave the country via an agent who smuggles people in shipping containers, it causes a rift between his love for Viet and the desires for his own future.